Hilary Term, 2015
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND COLLECTIVE PROTEST
Dr Michael Biggs
Monday, 2-4pm, Sociology meeting room, Manor Road Building
This paper explains the origins and outcomes of social movements and collective
protest. Readings range widely in subject matter—from food riots in the eighteenth
century to the Arab Spring in 2011. The emphasis is on preparing students to develop
their own empirical research, for the MSc dissertation or DPhil thesis.
Requirements for students auditing the paper as well as those enrolled:
•
Two essays (about 2000 words) answering one of the week’s questions. You are
welcome to propose another question, just discuss it with me first. The essay
should refer to all the assigned readings plus one other article published since 2010.
Sharing your essays will help with revisions for the examination. Email me the essay
before 10am on Monday. Late essays will not receive comments.
•
One presentation (no longer than 5 minutes) which sketches a feasible empirical
research project (the size of an article or MSc thesis) that would contribute to the
literature discussed that week.
The paper is assessed by a three-hour examination in Trinity Term.
READING LIST († to be circulated)
General
Sydney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action, and
Politics, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2011
Nick Crossley, Making Sense of Social Movements, Open University Press, 2002
Karl-Dieter Opp, Theories of Political Protest and Social Movements: A
Multidisciplinary Introduction, Critique, and Synthesis, Abingdon: Routledge, 2009
Suzanne Staggenborg, Social Movements, 2nd. ed., Oxford University Press, 2012
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1. Historical origins
What is a social movement? We consider the origin of the modern movement in the
late eighteenth century and early nineteenth, contrasting this with an earlier form of
protest, the food riot. The protest ‘repertoire’ is an important concept, as is the
protest event or ‘contentious gathering’. The final two readings describe the variety of
modern social movements.
•
What are the main differences between ‘premodern’ protest and protest in
contemporary democracies?
•
What explains the origin of the modern social movement?
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848,
Robert C. Tucker (ed.), The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd ed., New York: Norton, 1978,
prefaces, parts i-ii (pp. 469-91), iv (pp. 499-500)
E.P. Thompson, ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth
Century’, Past and Present, vol. 50, 1971, pp. 76-136, reprinted in Customs in
Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture, New York: The New Press, pp.
185-258
E.P. Thompson, ‘The Moral Economy Reviewed’, Customs in Common: Studies in
Traditional Popular Culture, New York: The New Press, 1993, pp. 259-351
Wendy Thwaites, ‘Oxford Food Riots: A Community and Its Markets’, Adrian
Randall and Andrew Charlesworth (eds), Markets, Market Culture and Popular
Protest in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland, Liverpool University Press,
1996, pp. 137-62†
Charles Tilly, Contentious Performances, Cambridge University Press, 2008
William H. Sewell, Jr., ‘Collective Violence and Collective Loyalties in France:
Why the French Revolution Made a Difference’, Politics and Society, vol. 18, 1990,
pp. 527-52
Peter Stamatov, ‘The Religious Field and the Path-Dependent Transformation of
Popular Politics in the Anglo-American World, 1770-1840’, Theory and Society,
vol. 40, 2011, pp. 437-73
William A. Gamson, The Strategy of Social Protest, Homewood, Ill.: The Dorsey
Press, 1975, pp. 14-17 and appendix A†
Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, Sheera Joy Olasky, and James E. Stobaugh, ‘All the
Movements Fit to Print: Who, What, When, Where, and Why SMO Families
Appeared in the New York Times in the Twentieth Century’, American Sociological
Review, vol. 74, 2009, pp. 635–56
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2. Contesting power
A fundamental theoretical question is how protest can bring about social change. We
investigate the distinct logics of coercion and persuasion. Curiously, recent literature
has relatively little to say about these logics, and indeed the most insightful books were
published over half a century ago: you must read at least one of these.
•
How can ‘collective protest’ (sometimes) overcome structural powerlessness?
•
‘Protest is only effective when it inflicts costs on opponents, and thereby forces
them to grant concessions.’ Discuss.
Frances Fox Piven, ‘Can Power from Below Change the World?’, American
Sociological Review, vol. 73, 2008, pp. 1-14
Michael Biggs, ‘Strikes as Sequences of Interaction: The American Strike Wave of
1886’, Social Science History, vol. 26, 2002, pp. 583-617
Dan Reiter, ‘Exploring the Bargaining Model of War’, Perspectives on Politics,
2003, vol. 1, pp. 27-43
Thomas M. Geraghty and Thomas Wiseman, ‘Wage Strikes in 1880s America: A
Test of the War of Attrition Model’, Journal of Economic History, vol. 45, 2008, pp.
303-26
Either Clarence Marsh Case, Non-Violent Coercion: A Study in Methods of Social
Pressure, London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1923
Or Richard B. Gregg, The Power of Non-Violence, London: G. Routledge, 1935
Or Krishnalal Shridharani, War Without Violence: A Study of Gandhi’s Method and
its Accomplishments, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1939
Or Harvey Seifert, Conquest Through Suffering: The Process and Prospects of
Nonviolent Resistance, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1965
Ralph Turner, ‘Determinants of Social Movement Strategy’, Tamotsu Shibutani
(ed.), Human Nature and Collective Behavior: Papers in Honor of Herbert Blumer,
Englewood-Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970, pp. 145-64†
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy
Networks in International Politics, Cornell University Press, 1998
Michael Biggs, ‘When Costs are Benefits: Communicative Suffering as Political
Protest’, 2014; http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/beneficialcosts.pdf
3. Explaining mobilization: blacks in the American South, 1956 to 1964
Now we focus on explaining one particular episode of mobilization. This case is
selected because it has attracted such intense interest from sociologists. The
paramount question is why blacks mobilized against racial oppression in the early
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1960s—why not earlier? If time permits, we can also ask the question how the
movement achieved such success in changing norms and practices and in passing
legislation. If you are not familiar with the historical background, watch the
documentary film Eyes on the Prize and the fictional (albeit fairly accurate) Selma.
•
‘If movement emergence is explained by political opportunities, it becomes
impossible to account for many cases where movements fail—because in those
cases the opportunities turned out to be nonexistent.’ Do you agree?
•
How convincing is McAdam’s explanation for the rise of the Civil Rights movement?
•
Why are social networks important in explaining participation in social movements?
Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 19301970, University of Chicago Press, 1982, chs. 3, 5-7; Introduction to 2nd ed., 1999
J. Craig Jenkins, David Jacobs, and Jon Agnone, ‘Political Opportunities and
African-American Protest, 1948-1997’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 109,
2003, pp. 277-303
Doron Shultziner, ‘The Social-Psychological Origins of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott: Social Interaction and Humiliation in the Emergence of Social
Movements’, Mobilization, vol. 18, 2013, pp. 117-42
Aldon Morris, ‘Black Southern Student Sit-in Movement: An Analysis of Internal
Organization’, American Sociological Review, vol. 36, 1981, pp. 744-67
Lewis M. Killian, 1984, ‘Organization, Rationality and Spontaneity in the Civil
Rights Movement’, American Sociological Review, vol. 49, pp. 770-83
Kenneth T. Andrews and Michael Biggs, ‘The Dynamics of Protest Diffusion:
Movement Organizations, Social Networks, and News Media in the 1960 Sit-ins’,
American Sociological Review, vol. 71, 2006, pp. 752-77
Michael Biggs, ‘Who Joined the Sit-ins and Why: Southern Black Students in the
early 1960s’, Mobilization, vol. 11, 2006, pp. 241-56
Steven Barkan, ‘Legal Control of the Southern Civil Rights Movement’, American
Sociological Review, vol. 49, 1984, pp. 552-65
Aldon Morris, ‘Birmingham Confrontation Reconsidered’, American Sociological
Review, vol. 58, 1993, pp. 621-36
4. Dynamics: positive feedback
With hindsight, sociologists and historians can always find exogenous changes to
‘explain’ the eruption of protest. Curiously, however, waves of protest are never
predicted in advance! This leads to a crucial theoretical point: an individual’s decision to
participate in collective action depends on the actions of others, and so protest is
subject to positive feedback. The diffusion of protest is structured by mass media and
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by social networks.
•
‘The threshold model is useless because it cannot be empirically tested.’ Do you
agree?
•
To what extent does ‘diffusion’ help to explain protest?
•
Occasionally there are almost simultaneous outbreaks of mass protest in several
countries, as in 2011. Why?
Mark Granovetter, ‘Threshold Models of Collective Behavior’, American Journal of
Sociology, vol. 83, 1978, pp. 1420-43
Peter Hedström, Rickard Sandell, and Carlotta Stern, ‘Mesolevel Networks and the
Diffusion of Social Movements’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 106, 2000,
pp. 145-72
Michael Biggs, ‘Strikes as Forest Fires: Chicago and Paris in the Late 19th
Century’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 110, 2005, pp. 1684-1714
Laura Barberena, Hortencia Jiménez, and Michael P. Young, ‘“It Just Happened”:
Telescoping Anxiety, Defiance, and Emergent Collective Behavior in the Student
Walkouts of 2006’, Social Problems, vol. 61, 2013, pp. 1-19
David A. Snow and Dana M. Moss, ‘Protest on the Fly: Toward a Theory of
Spontaneity in the Dynamics of Protest and Social Movements’, American
Sociological Review, vol. 79, 2014, pp. 1122-43
Ruud Koopmans, ‘Movements and Media: Selection Processes and Evolutionary
Dynamics in the Public Sphere’, Theory and Society, vol. 33, 2004, pp. 367-91
Hyojoung Kim and Steven Pfaff, ‘Structure and Dynamics of Religious Insurgency:
Students and the Spread of the Reformation’, American Sociological Review, vol.
77, 2012, pp. 188-215
Mark R. Beissinger, ‘Structure and Example in Modular Political Phenomena: The
Diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip Revolutions’, Perspectives on Politics,
vol. 5, 2007, pp. 259-76
Kurt Weyland, ‘The Arab Spring: Why the Surprising Similarities with the
Revolutionary Wave of 1848?’, Perspectives on Politics, vol. 10, 2012, pp. 913-34
Roger Gould, ‘Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871’,
American Sociological Review, vol. 56, 1991, pp. 716-29
Shin-Kap Han, ‘The Other Ride of Paul Revere: The Brokerage Role in the Making
of the American Revolution’, Mobilization, vol. 14, 2009, pp. 143-62
Roger Gould, ‘Why Do Networks Matter? Rationalist and Structuralist
Interpretations’, Mario Diani and Doug McAdam (eds), Social Movements and
Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2003, pp. 233-57†
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David A. Siegel, ‘Social Networks and Collective Action’, American Journal of
Political Science, vol. 53, 2009, pp. 122-38
5. Movement cultures and organization
Social movements create new forms of social organization and new cultures. I haven’t
found a coherent set of readings to address this topic, so we will have to tease out the
significant themes for ourselves. Some of the previous readings on social networks can
be discussed also in this context.
•
What, if anything, can ‘framing’ explain?
•
How does the organizational structure of a social movement influence the kinds of
actions it undertakes?
David Snow, Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven Worden, and Robert Benford, ‘Frame
Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation’, American
Sociological Review, vol. 51, 1986, pp. 464-81
Aldon Morris and Naomi Braine, ‘Social Movements and Oppositional
Consciousness’, Jane Mansbridge and Aldon Morris (ed), Oppositional
Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest, University of Chicago Press,
2001, pp. 20-37†
Anna-Maria Marshall, ‘A Spectrum of Oppositional Consciousness: Sexual
Harassment Plaintiffs and Their Lawyers’, Jane Mansbridge and Aldon Morris
(eds), Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest,
University of Chicago Press, 2001, pp. 99-145†
Andreas Glaeser, Political Epistemics: the Secret Police, the Opposition, and the
End of East German Socialism, University of Chicago Press, 2011, part 4:
Disenchantment, Disengagement, Opposition—The Dissidents, pp. 339-461
Luther P. Gerlach and Virginia H. Hine, People, Power, Change: Movements of
Social Transformation, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970, ch. 3†
Francesca Polletta, Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social
Movements, University of Chicago Press, 2002
Marshall Ganz, ‘Resources and Resourcefulness: Strategic Capacity in the
Unionization of California Agriculture, 1959­1966’, American Journal of Sociology.
vol. 105, 2000, pp. 1003­62
Xiaohong Xu, ‘Belonging Before Believing: Group Ethos and Bloc Recruitment in
the Making of Chinese Communism’, American Sociological Review, vol. 78, 2013,
pp. 773-96
Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Suzanna M. Crage, ‘Movements and Memory: The
Making of the Stonewall Myth’, American Sociological Review, vol. 71, 2006, pp.
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724-51
Randall Collins, ‘Social Movements and the Focus of Emotional Attention’, Jeff
Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta (eds.), Passionate Politics:
Emotions and Social Movements, University of Chicago Press, 2001, pp. 27-44†
6. Riots; repertoires
This session considers two different topics. The first is rioting, which has different
characteristics from protest as usually conceived; protesters are generally relatively
privileged, for example, whereas rioters are poor. The second topic is the evolution of
protest repertoires of protest. How are new tactics invented? How do they spread?
The diffusion of forms of protest highlights connections across movements and across
countries.
•
Why do people riot?
•
Why do repertoires of protest change over time?
Jack A. Goldstone and Bert Useem, ‘Prison Riots as Microrevolutions: An
Extension of State-Centered Theories of Revolution’, American Journal of
Sociology, vol. 104, 1999, pp. 985-1029
Bert Useem and Jack A. Goldstone, ‘Forging Social Order and Its Breakdown: Riot
and Reform in U.S. prisons’, American Sociological Review, 67, 2002, pp. 499-525
Daniel J. Myers, ‘Violent Protest and Heterogeneous Diffusion Processes: The
Spread of U.S. Racial Rioting from 1964 to 1971’, Mobilization, vol. 15, 2010, pp.
289-321
Albert Bergesen and Max Herman, ‘Immigration, Race, and Riot: The 1992 Los
Angeles Uprising’, American Sociological Review, vol. 63, 1998, pp. 39-54
Santoro, Wayne A. and Lisa Broidy, ‘Gendered Rioting: A General Strain
Theoretical Approach’, Social Forces, online
James Treadwell, Daniel Briggs, Simon Winlow, and Steve Hall, ‘Shopocalypse
Now: Consumer Culture and the English Riots of 2011’, British Journal of
Criminology, vol. 53, 2013, pp. 1-17
Juta Kawalerowicz and Michael Biggs, ‘Anarchy in the U.K.: Economic
Deprivation, Social Disorganization, and Political Grievances in the London Riot of
2011’, accepted by Social Forces†
Sean Scalmer, Gandhi in the West: The Mahatma and the Rise of Radical Protest,
Cambridge University Press, 2011
Michael Biggs, ‘How Repertoires Evolve: The Diffusion of Suicide Protest in the
Twentieth Century’, Mobilization, vol. 18, 2013, pp. 407-28
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Neil F. Ketchley, ‘The Army and the People Are One Hand! Fraternization and the
25th January Egyptian Revolution’, Comparative Studies in Society and History,
vol. 56, 2014, pp. 155-86
7. Do social movements make a difference?
We like to think that social movements can be transformative, but robust evidence for
this is surprisingly scarce. The challenge is to isolate the effect of protest and
organization from the effect of other social changes that facilitate protest and
organization. It is crucial for us to take seriously the skeptical arguments made for
example by Burstein & Linton and Frank et al.
•
‘In a democracy, politicians respond to the central tendency of public opinion
rather than a small minority of activists.’ Do you agree?
•
Why do some movements succeed while others fail?
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‘The achievements of any movement depend largely on the reaction of the state
rather than the movement’s own strategies.’ Discuss.
Susan Olzak and Sarah A. Soule, ‘Cross-Cutting Influences of Environmental
Protest and Legislation’, Social Forces, vol. 88, 2009, pp. 201-225
Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, Elizabeth Chiarello, and Yang Su, ‘The Political
Consequences of Social Movements, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 36, 2010, pp.
287-307
Paul Burstein and April Linton, ‘The Impact of Political Parties, Interest Groups,
and Social Movement Organizations on Public Policy: Some Recent Evidence and
Theoretical Concerns’, Social Forces, vol. 81, 2002, pp. 380-408
Paul Ingram, Lori Qingyuan Yue, and Hayagreeva Rao, ‘Trouble in Store: Probes,
Protests, and Store Openings by Wal-Mart, 1998-2007’, American Journal of
Sociology, 2010
Kenneth T. Andrews, ‘The Impacts of Social Movements on the Political Process:
the Civil Rights Movement and Black Electoral Politics in Mississippi’, American
Sociological Review, vol. 62, 1997, pp. 800-19
Michael Biggs and Kenneth T. Andrews, ‘Protest Campaigns and Movement
Success: Desegregating the U.S. South, 1960-61’ American Sociological Review,
forthcoming†
Rachel Kahn Best, ‘Disease Politics and Medical Research Funding: Three Ways
Advocacy Shapes Policy’, American Sociological Review, vol. 77, 2012, pp. 780803
Andreas Madestam, Daniel Shoag, Stan Veuger, and David Yanagizawa-Drott, ‘Do
Political Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement’, Quarterly
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Journal of Economics, vol. 128, 2013, pp. 1633-85
David John Frank, Bayliss J. Camp, and Steven A. Boutcher, ‘World-Wide Trends
in the Criminal Regulation of Sex, 1945 to 2005’, American Sociological Review,
vol. 75, 2010, pp. 867-93
Maria J Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, ‘Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic
Logic of Nonviolent Conflict’, International Security, vol. 33, 2008, pp. 7-44
Maria Akchurin and Cheol-Sung Lee, ‘Pathways to Empowerment: Repertoires of
Women’s Activism and Gender Earnings Equality’, American Sociological Review,
vol. 78, 2013, pp. 679-701
8. Contemporary trends
We conclude by considering trends over the last few decades. The supposed
distinction between ‘new’ and ‘old’ movements will be scrutinized, along with the
notion of a ‘social movement society’. The decline of formal organization and the rise
of online mobilization will also be examined.
•
To what extent can contemporary Western democracies be called “social
movement societies”?
•
What differences has the internet made to collective mobilization?
Nelson A. Pichardo, ‘New Social Movements: A Critical Review’, Annual Review
of Sociology, vol. 23, 1997, pp. 411-30
Craig Calhoun, ‘“New Social Movements” of the Early Nineteenth Century’, Social
Science History, vol. 17, 1993, pp. 385-427
Michael Hechter, ‘From Class to Culture’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 110,
2004, pp. 400-45
David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow, ‘A Social Movement Society: Contentious
Politics for a New Century’, David S Meyer and Sidney Tarrow (eds), The Social
Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century, 1998, pp. 1-28
Neal Caren, Raj Andrew Ghoshal, and Vanesa Ribas, ‘A Social Movement
Generation: Cohort and Period Trends in Protest Attendance and Petition Signing’,
American Sociological Review, vol. 76, 2011, pp. 125-51
Michael Biggs, ‘Has Protest Increased Since the 1970s? How a Survey Question
Can Construct a Spurious Trend’, British Journal of Sociology, online, DOI:
10.1111/1468-4446.12099
Theda Skocpol, Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in
American Civic Life, University of Oklahoma Press, 2004
Edward T. Walker, John D. McCarthy, and Frank Baumgartner, ‘Replacing
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Members with Managers? Mutualism Among Membership and Non-Membership
Advocacy Organizations in the United States’, American Journal of Sociology, vol.
177, 2011, pp. 1284-1337
Paolo Gerbaudo, Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism,
London: Pluto, 2012
Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport, Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in
the Internet Age, MIT Press, 2011
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